


i'll be your shelter

by MaddieandChimney



Series: Comfortember 2020 [1]
Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, mentions of injury briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27375424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaddieandChimney/pseuds/MaddieandChimney
Summary: Comfortember Day One: Rescue & Day Two: First Day/Night.It's been two days and no one has seen or heard from Maddie or Josh.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley, Howie "Chimney" Han & Henrietta "Hen" Wilson, Maddie Buckley & Josh Russo, Maddie Buckley/Howie "Chimney" Han
Series: Comfortember 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2044117
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	1. Chapter 1

“It’s been two days.” Buck cuts through the tense silence, taking a deep breath when he looks around at his friends and the others who were trying to help him bring his sister and her best friend home. Chimney had done everything in his power to remain calm and stoic in front of everyone else – he was the temporary Captain, he couldn’t wear his heart on his sleeves as Buck was, he couldn’t burst into tears and scream out her name even if he wanted to. Still, with each passing hour and every time night fall comes, he can’t help but feel just that much closer to giving up all hope.

A hike to clear her head; that was what she had set out to do when she had left her apartment with Josh at seven in the morning a few days before. Buck had recalled the memory more than once since, how she’d laughed and rolled her eyes and told him they’d be back later. Both her and Josh already talking about all the wine and pizza they would be consuming that evening as the door shut behind them.

Ten hours had passed until the 9-1-1 call came through, the sun starting to lower and the panicked voice of Josh on the other end before his phone presumably died and they hadn’t heard anything since. Just a hike to clear her head and two days later they were still looking for them. Chimney gulps down the lump in his throat as tears sting his eyes and he finds himself walking away from the group. They have an hour until darkness hits and he’s going to have to go back to the station still unknowing, the hope dwindling with each passing minute when he doesn’t know Maddie is safe.

They’re taking a minute, it’s meant to be _just_ a minute and yet there he is, staring out into the vast unknown without a damn clue where she is or if she’s coming back to him in any physical way. No. He thinks, he can’t do another night without her, he can’t go to the station and run through their failure of a day and look Buck in the eyes and promise him that they’re going to find Maddie without actually believing his own words. He’s not lying helpless in a hospital bed as he had been the last time she went missing and whilst the circumstances are (hopefully) vastly different, there’s still that loss there that he feels in his very core.

“Chim, where are you going?” Hen’s voice cuts through the one in his own head but he ignores her and carries on. They’d had a possible sighting in this area a few hours before and he curses Maddie and Josh for clearly going off the trail they were meant to be doing because it’s been walked several times and there’s no sign of either of them. “Chimney, you can’t just walk off, where are you going?” His best friends voice is more demanding that time, and closer as she runs behind him, grabbing his arm in an attempt to stop him.

“I’m not leaving until we find her.”

“You haven’t eaten all day, you’ve barely taken a sip of water and you definitely haven’t slept, you can’t just—” He cuts her off by walking away, only letting out a frustrated huff although he knows she’s only worried about him. He’d be worried about himself too, if the fact he might never see Maddie again wasn’t taking over every logical part of his brain that told him to slow down. “Then I’m coming with you.”

He should have expected that, of course she wouldn’t leave his side (she hadn’t since they’d gotten the news), so he doesn’t respond with anything other than a nod of his head, leaving himself a mental note to thank her when he knows Maddie is safe. “It’s going to get dark soon.” He points out, as though somehow that’s going to stop her. Instead, Hen rolls her eyes and takes her torch out, waving it around as though that’s enough of an answer.

The LA nights were cold and he wasn’t sure either Maddie or Josh could survive a second night out there, especially if they were injured. He tries not to think of the alternative, that familiar feeling of sickness washing over him when he steps over the rocks and heads into the unknown, listening to the sound of others calling out the names of the two lost dispatchers.

“I know you want to find her and I’m not leaving until you leave but you know it’s not going to help anyone if they’re looking for four lost people instead of two, right?” Chimney knows he can always trust Hen to be the voice of reason but he also knows this would be the other way around if it were Karen out there, a look of desperation on his face when he glances over at her, nodding his head because he does know that and he knows that he would never forgive himself for taking any resource away from Maddie and Josh.

“We’ll look until the sun goes down.” He mumbles, even if he hates the words, even if he knows he can’t go home to his always empty apartment, thinking of all the times she had been there. Or really, thinking about how the last time she had been there was with tear stained cheeks and a kiss against his lips before she walked out under the promise that it would be only a minute. It had been two months since then and so much had changed – he was Captain (temporarily), he had finally gone to see a therapist, he was starting to feel as though he was in a semi-good place and he knew from little bits he got from Buck that she was, too. She had a new apartment, her and Josh were closer than ever, therapy was going well and she was starting to truly settle into her new life in LA as a dispatcher. She’d had a brief wobble which had led to Josh’s suggestion they spend the day really taking in the beauty that was her new home, a trail he had hiked a thousand times over, he had promised. Chimney doesn’t know what went wrong but it still fills him with overwhelming dread that neither of them have been seen or heard from since.

So much had changed yet, he still felt the exact same way about her as he always had.

“Wait, do you hear that?” Her hand is on his chest and he wonders if she can feel his how his heart is pounding when the two of them stop and he tries to listen for whatever she had heard. “I thought—”

And then he hears it too.

It’s the sound of hope, the distinct sound of someone shouting for help in the distance and he can’t control the way he’s practically flying forwards towards it as he practically screams into his radio for help, already breathless before he reaches the furthest point of the mountain edge and looks around in sheer desperation. “Maddie? Josh?” His voice echoes against the rocks and he wonders if he and Hen had shared a hallucination until he hears it again, this time below him and he finds himself scrambling down onto his knees with no thought for himself as he looks over the edge. It takes a moment, through the darkening sky and his tear filled eyes, to notice the slight dip in the rocks beneath them and a hand waving, the overwhelming relief finally letting the tears fall as he gestures for the rangers.

The next half an hour is full of anticipation and fear of the unknown because even though they know _where_ they are, no one knows what state either of them are in physically. His nails are bitten all the way down to the quick in the absence of the gum (he’d make his way through five packets in the last few days) by the time Josh is pulled up and he’s thankful that they are surrounded by paramedics who take action because whilst he’s relieved her best friend is okay, he still hasn’t seen her and he’s frozen in position.

“What if—”

“Don’t.” Hen’s hand is on his lower back and it should be comforting but all he can think about is having to look Buck in the eyes and tell him that he’d let him and his sister down again. The thought of living a life without Maddie causes a crippling amount of pain and he can only liken it to waking up in hospital after being stabbed and being told by Bobby that Maddie was missing and that Jason was her husband as he’d already suspected by the time his eyes had closed and he’d thought that was game over for him.

It seems to take hours until her backboard hits the ground, although in reality it’s probably only been ten minutes and he finds himself running towards her. She’s moving and her eyes are open and she’s _smiling_ at him and all he can do is sob as he presses a hand to the dried blood on her forehead and look her over entirely. “Just a concussion and a broken arm.” She mumbles, as though it’s nothing and he can’t stop himself from rolling his eyes when he leans down to press his lips against her cheek, nuzzling his nose into the cold skin before he’s scrambling to remove his jacket, using it to cover her up in the hopes it’ll offer some warmth.

“I’ve got you, Maddie. You and Josh are going to be okay. I’ve got you.”


	2. Chapter 2

Between Chimney and Buck, Maddie isn’t alone at all that night or the following day. Her brother cries, and she can’t say she blames him because this is the second time in a few months where he’s had to go looking for her, completely unknowing of the outcome. He’s traumatised, as any logical person would be and she can see the terror still lingering in those blue eyes as she tries to tell him that she’s going to be just fine.

She hates herself for it but she’s relieved when he swaps over ‘shifts’ with Chimney because she knows he needs to go home and shower and sleep and eat something. And it also gives her some time alone with the equally exhausted looking man who had been the first voice she had heard other than Josh’s in a few days.

Maddie can barely remember what happened, beyond Josh losing his footing and taking her down with him after they’d gotten more than a little lost. They’d just started to give up hope when she had heard an all too familiar voice and she felt as though her prayers had been answered. Thanks to him not giving up, both she and Josh are going to be okay. Dehydrated, a few broken bones between them and a killer of a migraine but alive and safe.

She makes a mental note that she is _never_ going hiking again. She’d never been before Josh had suggested it with an excited clap of his hands and a look in his eyes (and the promise of wine afterwards) and she most definitely would not be venturing anywhere near a single trail for the rest of her life. Woods had already scarred her for life, now she was going to add mountains to that hopefully never growing list of places to never go.

“How are you feeling?” His voice is raspy, his eyes dull, looking as through he’s struggling to stand, let alone keep his eyes open but he still looks at her with that lop sided, shy smile that she adores so much.

“M’kay, had some nice painkillers, how are _you?_ ” The question causes him to raise his eyebrows before he’s shaking his head with a sigh and she watches him step a little closer to the edge of the bed, still keeping his distance in a way that makes her frown. Maddie finds her hand reaching out for him in the hopes he’ll take it, thankful when he does.

The squeeze of his hand seems to give him the ability to speak again when he brushes his thumb against her knuckles and focuses on the arm that isn’t broken with a gulp, “I just—I promised myself if anything ever happened to you, I wouldn’t be helpless or useless again, you know? And I just—I feel like I let you down, I could have found you sooner.” She knows him enough to know that no matter what the outcome – whether it had been two hours or two days – that he would still blame himself.

“You still found me and you didn’t give up. Me and Josh couldn’t be more thankful for you or for Hen…” It’s with a small smile that she tugs on his hand, realising he’s not going to get the hint anytime soon because he’s still standing there as far away from her as he could possibly get with his hand in hers. “Lay with me.” The hesitation on his face is enough to make her push forward because alongside it, she can see the longing in his eyes and the tears starting to build up. It’s not lost on her, the irony that a few months before she had been the one moving to carefully snuggle into his side without hurting him as he laid in a hospital bed. She just finds herself hoping that the two of them can avoid a hospital room for as long as possible (forever, she hopes, but she knows life isn’t that kind).

She pulls on his hand once more, “I’ve been imagining your arms around me for the last few days, please?” That seems to be what he needs to hear, his hand falling from hers to carefully position himself in the bed next to her, an arm wrapping around her shoulders to pull her close before lips move to her forehead. It’s with a pout that she rests her plaster cast clad hand against his stomach, realising she can’t have him both next to her and rub his stomach at the same time in the only way she knows to comfort him.

“It’s okay,” Chimney whispers, fingers trailing through her hair, lips brushing against her nose when she tilts her head up to look at him. “it’s enough to just have you in my arms right now. You scared me… again… I thought—I really thought that we would never find you and if we did—” His body literally shudders at the thought and she can’t help but wonder how she got so lucky to find someone who cares for her in the way Chimney does. In the way any person is meant to be cared for by another. It’s foreign to her still, the way the tears fall from his eyes and his hands tremble… it’s all so new and different in the best way possible.

“Knew you’d find me.” Her words are mumbled against his skin as she dives her head into the crook of his neck, pressing clumsy, open-mouthed kisses there with a sigh. It’s half a lie – she had imagined he would be the one to find them but there had come a point when she had thought they were too well-hidden to actually be rescued and with nowhere to go but up and her with a broken arm and Josh with his broken leg, she knew they were stuck unless someone heard them. And they had, Chimney and Hen had, to be exact. A strange, yet happy coincidence because there was no one else in the world who could bring her more comfort than Chimney. He was one of only two men who made her feel safe and loved.

Chimney’s arm tightens around her as though he senses what she’s thinking and what she’s feeling, her own tears against his skin as she takes a deep breath. “You’re never going hiking again.” He finally mumbles against her head with a laugh, half-joking although she’s in complete agreement.

The fingers running through her hair are comforting, as her eyes fall to a close and she hopes she isn’t awoken by another nightmare of still being stuck in the harsh coldness of the LA night with Josh snuggling into her side as he tells her hopeful stories of hikers he’d spoken to on the phone so many times and they’d all been rescued. “Can our minute be over?” She finally breathes out the question she had been holding back since she’d looked him in the eyes when he’d draped his jacket over her on the edge of the mountain the night before. “Don’t want to go another day without this—”

She half gestures with her hand to them; to the fact his arms are wrapped around her and she can feel his pulse against her lips, pressed so tightly against him. She feels safe and loved and the closest to happiness she’s felt in a few months just because he’s right there beside her and she doesn’t want to miss another second of sharing her life with him and falling in love with him.

Maddie might not be looking at him but she can sense the smile on his face when he talks, his shoulders shrugging, as his other arm moves to pull her even closer without jostling her bruised body about too much, “Of course we can. There’s nothing I want more, other than you out of this hospital bed and back home.”

“Me neither.” She whispers, tilting her head up just a little to brush her lips against his jaw, snuggling as much into his side as she possibly can, lapping up the warmth of his body and the feeling of how happy she feels with his arms wrapped around her. It seems like a lifetime ago that she had thought she would never feel this again with him, even if it had only been barely twelve hours before, so she wants to make the most of every opportunity she has to be near him.

“Sleep, you need it.”

“Mm, you too. You look worse than me.” It’s with an innocent look that her eyes meet his, smiling back at him when he grins at her, although he doesn’t deny the insinuation. She knows he wouldn’t have slept whilst she was gone, doubts entirely that he’d eaten or drank anything beyond what Hen could force down him. Another example of how much he cares and just how trusting she feels in the knowledge that he is a good, kind man who couldn’t ever hurt her.

With a sigh, he nods his head, “I’ll sleep here until the nurses kick me out.”

“And then you’ll eat?”

The roll of his eyes is filled with nothing but affection, his lips upturned in a smile before he nods his head, “Then I’ll eat.”


End file.
